The recent unwrapping of the Ankiv Baisoya’s fake degree case brings with it harsh truths about elections and raises a question on the trustworthiness of nomination credentials.
On the 13th of September 2018, Ankiv Baisoya was appointed as the President of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU). Recently, his college degree has been put to the question, accusing him of providing the authorities with a fake one. He is currently pursuing Masters in the Buddhist Studies program from the Department of Buddhist Studies, University of Delhi (DU). It would’ve been surprising if such a case happened for the first time, but the Rocky Tuseed case had already paved a way for expecting more such instances.
Ankiv Basisoya won with total votes of 20,467, marking a clear difference of 2000 votes from his opponent. The whole faith and belief that people as voters have on their leaders stand in question when one gets to know that their preferred candidate has based himself on false foundations. As a voter, one invests a lot of time and effort during the whole process of elections.
The public’s support towards any leader is based on the promises that they make in their manifestos or other public gatherings. We are offered what the leaders want us to know and that’s about it. These promises, however, turn out mostly to be hollow and fake. During the DUSU Elections, people were being offered movie tickets, free food, etc, The voters, at times get blinded by the misty fog of sweetness and pretentiousness that hides dark and unlawful secrets. All the assurances of a “better tomorrow” or “bright future” that seemed promising and fancy at first, slowly lose its charm.
Of course, in a democratic system (India, being one of the largest democracies in the world), the public is the one who has an upper hand and can elect the leaders of their choice. But when the public itself falls into the ditches of fake promises or indifference, or the chosen leader turns out to be a bad choice, the belief system lays tarnished on the grounds of false pretences. And most importantly, puts a big question mark on the honesty and authenticity of the political party as a whole. In Rocky Tuseed’s case, for example, since his criminal records came forward and he was exposed openly in front of the public. The party that he was representing, the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) had to bear the effect of his actions in the DUSU Elections of 2018, by winning only one post (that of the Joint Secretary) out of four.
Amidst all the uncertainty surrounding this kind of a condition, the most certain idea that takes birth is – that if such a situation can arise during the election procedure in one of the best universities of the country, why can’t it happen in the national elections? Already, our current Prime Minister is embroiled in controversies surrounding his educational qualifications.
Maxwell’s saying that “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way” will lie somewhere deep, buried inside the earth if such an event ever unfolds in the national election. Because then, an inevitable question will present itself: What even is the ‘way’?
Image Credits: Ankiv Basoya, Facebook
Akshada Shrotryia
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